Straw Turns to Gold

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No, I’m not Rumplestiltskin, the cranky gnome in a Grimm fairy tale; I can’t spin straw into gold. But, straw saves me money, crops and my sanity, which is golden to my thinking.

Straw bales are inexpensive gold for gardens. I only pay $4 a bale, and the straw saves me hours of weeding, watering, and worrying.

Everything in the vegetable garden is mulched with a 6-inch layer, including blueberries, Alpine strawberries and cranberries. I use a foot or two of straw atop the potato bed to grow clean potatoes that can be easily harvested. Tubers form in the straw and crops are always bigger when I use the straw mulch.

First, let me explain the difference between straw and hay. You don’t want to use hay, as it will cause nightmares and plenty of weed pulling. Hay is grown for animal feed and contains protein-rich seed heads that when spread over gardens sprout. They quickly grow into lanky, seedy plants that are difficult to control by either pulling or spraying.

Straw is the bottom half of hay stalks and contains few or no seed heads. It’s pure carbon and has no protein. Straw stalks are hollow and don’t compact or mat. They’re also slow to decompose and don’t tie up nitrogen or other nutrients in soil, making the perfect mulch.

Potato crops are huge when grown in a foot or two of straw on top of the soil. The blueberries in the background benefit from straw mulch, because their roots are shallow, and the plants are moisture lovers.

A bale of straw costs about $4 in my area. I get it from a farmer nearby. Numerous garden centers stock straw, too. Bales are huge; one will usually cover the garden. Just be sure that you are buying straw, not hay.

Drought Defense

A thick blanket of straw keeps the moisture in soil, slowing evaporation radically. Watering the garden once a week will be the norm, rather than every day or two. If you live in an area of the country that is experiencing rainfall shortage this summer or drought, straw mulch is gold! I do. We’ve received only a tenth of normal rainfall and had a huge snow deficient last winter. The ground is so dry, it’s cracking in spots. But, I water the vegetable garden only once a week, despite high temperatures and lack of rain.

Straw also saves crops like tomatoes, peppers and squash from developing blossom-end rot and cat-facing; blueberries from shriveling; and sweet peppers from turning hot. Soil moisture stays even and calcium can be transferred from the soil to tomatoes easily, preventing the diseases. Straw mulch at the base of tomato and pepper plants also prevents that transfer of soil-borne diseases such as early blight to plant leaves. No water splashes up from the soil to leaves, because the straw absorbs it.

A thick straw mulch also fosters the growth of large pumpkins, winter squash and watermelons. The mulch provides a clean blanket upon which melons and pumpkins can grow unblemished.

Have you used straw for mulch? What other materials do you use to hold moisture in and prevent diseases?

~ By Doreen G. Howard

About This Blog

Get inspired by Robin Sweetser's backyard gardening tips. Robin has been a contributor to The Old Farmer's Almanac and the All-Seasons Garden Guide for many years. She and her partner Tom have a small greenhouse business and also sell plants, cut flowers, and vegetables at their local Farmer's Market.

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Core Gardening

I heard mention of a gardening technique called "Core Gardening" but I cannot see any other references to it. This approach has the gardener bury straw (do not know how much) down the center of the vegetable bed, about a foot down. It holds water for the bed and reduces watering needs to once every week or two. And plants will root in it as well. Have you ever heard about this? I have additionally read about tilling black molded straw in your garden, both autumn and spring. The black growth is "trichoderma harzianum" which also grows on gypsum drywall. This friendly mold cooperates with Mycorrhizae and enhances nutrient transfer to plant roots. It is also documented to speed up composting.

New Techniques

Yes, Trichoderma harzianum in combination with Mycorrhizae can serve as disease suppressants. They are particularly effective in helping to control damping-off disease in tomato plants. As for “Core Gardening,” you have piqued our interest! We came up empty-handed when researching the method. Perhaps you can aks your source for more information and share it with us? Could be a story….

Most thistles can be

Most thistles can be controlled with the use of herbicides in the fall or spring. You do need to figure out what type of thistle you have ( there are both perennial and biennial kinds) to figure out the best solution. We'd suggest you contact your local county cooperative extension to recommend herbicides approved in your state.

Following up on TimCAD's

Following up on TimCAD's Q&A...I have just directly sowed many seeds...lettuce, carrots, green beans, peas... and have added a 1"-ish layer of straw as mulch. In your answer, are you suggesting NOT to use straw as mulch at this point, but to wait til I have growth, and then add straw? If so, what do you suggest I use as mulch? I live in a very dry area and want to use something for water retention. Thanks.

I'm so disappointed that a

I'm so disappointed that a Farmer's Almanac article would get such a basic distinction between hay (alfalfa) and straw (the left over plant body from small grains). They are two totally student kinds of plants.
Please fact check before you continue posting this page.

Theres hay and there's hay.

I am very interested in

I am very interested in trying this method with newspaper and straw... we have lots of extra straw on the farm and I would love to try to use it in order to cut down on weeding time! However, I am very nervous as to how it will hold up to any amount of wind? Any thoughts? We live in Wyoming, and even though we don't get a lot of wind where I live, we do get some storms that will bring wind from time to time. Thanks!!

A thick layer seems to hold

A thick layer seems to hold itself together. I've never had a problem with wind, and I live an area where it gets very gusty. After I apply the straw, I soak the area throughly to keep it from blowing. After that, I don't to a thing.

Plant potatoes 4-6 inches

Plant potatoes 4-6 inches deep in the soil. As sprouts with leaves appear, bury them with straw. Keep doing that until you have a straw layer at least 18 inches tall. Higher will produce more potatoes. Always leave the top two sets of leaves on each stem unburied so they can use sunlight for photosynthesis.

Check organic gardening sites

Check organic gardening sites for nutgrass management strategies. I used compost tea sweetened with unsulfured molasses and had a good result. Apparently, the sugars from the molasses feed the microorganisms in the compost tea, and then those lil' critters start feeding on the sugars in the nutgrass rhizomes. The only other organic way I know is to dig them out, and that is quite a chore!

Straw does hold moisture in

Straw does hold moisture in the ground longer, but if your rain-soaked beds are 18-inches-high or taller, that's not a problem. Moisture trickles down to lower levels, plus the straw slow evaporation. It's a great squash and melon mulch because of these traits.

Just to be correct, hay is

Just to be correct, hay is from different plants, usually clover, timothy, or mixed grasses and they do contain seed heads. Straw is the leftover stems from plants such as wheat after the seed heads have been harvested, so the weed seed load is usually much less.

If you leave the straw

If you leave the straw outside in the elements to "season" it will kill all of the seeds, then you can use it in your garden without any problems! The straw keeps moisture in the dirt but you need good dirt or else you'll end up with clay soup underneath. Straw can attract mice, pill bugs and slugs so heads up. In the end, it works great and there is nothing better for your garden. Bury your soaker hoses under it and you're all set. Grass clippings cook the dirt and add a nitrogen blast and leaves break down and mess with the PH as well.

I've used wheat straw in my

I've used wheat straw in my garden for a long time but for the past two years (including this year) there are weeds that are actually growing FROM the wheat straw. I put black mesh down before the wheat straw so I know it's not coming from the ground. Any ideas as to why it's growing from the wheat straw? Any ideas on how I can get rid of these weeds?

Pulling the weeds is the best

Pulling the weeds is the best way to get rid of them. I've been sold bales of straw, too, that were weedy. Some farmers are very sloppy about the way the harvest and include seed heads. It comes down to: know your source! And avoid proven weedy straw.

Try pet supply stores for

Thanks Doreen for the great

Thanks Doreen for the great article. I live a little south of you in Aurora and started using straw as mulch this year. I only put a thin layer (less than an inch) over my radishes and carrots as the seeds are directly sown. I was concerned about the seedlings sprouting up through it. Do you think it would be OK to put a thicker layer on for my fall plantings?

After seeds sprout and you

After seeds sprout and you thin, put a thick layer of straw mulch on, around each seedling. A good trick with carrot and radish seeds is to place a strip of toliet paper over the newly sown seeds. It breaks with each watering or rain storm and becomes part of the soil. The paper holds enough moisture close to the seed to aid germination.

Following up on TimCAD's

Following up on TimCAD's Q&A...I have just directly sowed many seeds...lettuce, carrots, green beans, peas... and have added a 1"-ish layer of straw as mulch. In your answer, are you suggesting NOT to use straw as mulch at this point, but to wait til I have growth, and then add straw? If so, what do you suggest I use as mulch? I live in a very dry area and want to use something for water retention. Thanks.

Every time I use straw to

Every time I use straw to mulch my garden, it gets loaded with sprouted wheat, whose roots grow deep so fast that I am unable to pull it all. I never remember this happening when I lived up North--is the wheat harvested differently in the South? It takes me years to remove the ever sprouting wheat from my garden. I've recently tried it again after not using it for over 20 years. I used old straw that we used in our dog's house the previous winter, believing that the remaining grain would have fallen from the seed heads. Boy was I wrong! I have spent hours an hours pulling wheat from my garden yet again, defeating the no-weeding goal. Am I doing something wrong? Digging wheat out in over 100 degree heat is getting old. Help!

Same problem here. I used

Same problem here. I used straw in my weed free garden only to find I am a wheat farmer now. Time to get the tiller out in this 100 degree weather. I don't know if I will use straw again unless it is very clean.

Both my mother-in-law and I

Both my mother-in-law and I use newspaper under the straw as an extra weed barrier. This prevents wheat from sprouting and does a great job of snuffing out weeds. The only real problem I see with this method it if I want to plant something new I either have to buy a start or start it inside since a seed wont germinate, but if you only want to keep the weeds out, this may be a good solution for you. :)

As an old farm girl (think

As an old farm girl (think 1950's and 60's!) I can't help but explain that straw is NOT the bottom half of hay stalks but it IS the lower part of wheat after it is harvested. Thus the beautiful golden color and the mostly empty pods on the heads of each "straw". I too have lots of it in my garden and the potatoes are doing very nicely in the 3 ft high pile of straw in which the row is growing. Can't wait until it's time to harvest them!

Do you till the straw in

Straw will rot slightly over

Straw will rot slightly over the winter, and you can use it again for mulch, adding more to maintain a six-inch or so layer of mulch. Straw doesn't add any nutrients to the soil, but it can be used to break up clay.

I make a furrow just like I

I make a furrow just like I was planting the seed potatoes in the ground, I cover with about a foot of straw. as the plants grow I cover with another 6 inches of straw. They are a lot easier to dig and the potatoes are really clean.

I live along the Wisconsin

I live along the Wisconsin border, 90 miles northwest of Chicago in Zone 5. Any mulch is going to draw slugs and beetles. Use barriers or sprinkle or spray plants with Dipel, an organic control for chewing pests. It freezes their stomaches.

Leaves tend to mat when wet.

Leaves tend to mat when wet. Also, they decompose rapidly, drawing nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil. So do grass clippings. An alternative is straw is compost or incomplete compost. Both break down, but they don't draw nutrients from the soil, robbing plants. Pine needles work, too.